Where Toluca earns its living
About one in seven work in Toluca; the top destination outside it is Peoria (9%, 31 miles). Toluca grades C for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. 1% of workers have no commute at all, next to 16% for Illinois as a whole.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Toluca stands out on work
Toluca makes and builds things
59% of the jobs based in Toluca are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Toluca residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 32%. The jobs ↓
Toluca’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Toluca is Peoria, 31 miles away as the crow flies. 9% of working residents (50) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Few Toluca workers work from home
Only 1% of workers work from home, against 16% across Illinois. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 586 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Toluca
On income, poverty and job access, Toluca is better than 31% of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Toluca’s grade.
Unemployment (5.5%) is left out: Toluca’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Toluca could be anywhere from C− to B−.
59% of the jobs in Toluca make or build things
514 jobs are based in Toluca.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Toluca, 2013 → 2023: 256 → 514. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Toluca’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where in the region Toluca works
About 27% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Each way, about 28 minutes from Toluca
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Toluca workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 553 commuters (the 1% who work from home are left out). Across Illinois: 78% drive alone, 7% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Toluca on a workday afternoon
On a workday 499 residents head out to work, 87 work right here, and 427 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.88 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Out of Toluca to work: where people go
Where Toluca clocks in
3% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Most trips from Toluca start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Toluca is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.8% across Illinois, on an EPA index of 6.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 560 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 0.7% of Toluca households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Toluca’s commuters take a bus or train.
Toluca is 2,983rd of 5,400 U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 28 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 31 | Third Lake IL | 1,103 | $150K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 36 | Lily Lake IL | 1,073 | $140K | 0.2% | 8.9% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,981 | Bloom Township OH | 1,608 | $78K | 14.6% | 2.7% | 2% | C |
| 2,982 | Phelps WI | 1,269 | $71K | 7.2% | 0.8% | 10% | C |
| 2,983 | Toluca IL | 1,310 | $70K | 13.8% | 5.5% | 15% | C |
| 2,984 | Belmont WI | 1,042 | $62K | 9.7% | 3.6% | 11% | C |
| 2,985 | Watersmeet Township MI | 1,481 | $73K | 7.4% | 3.1% | 27% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Toluca, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Toluca: questions
What is the median household income in Toluca?
$69,545 (±$7,813) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Toluca?
13.8%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Toluca?
28 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Toluca work?
15% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Peoria (9%, 31 mi), Minonk (5%, 8 mi), Roanoke (3%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Toluca walkable?
Toluca is more walkable than 66% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.7 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Toluca without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 1% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Toluca, from the people who make the trip.
More of Toluca
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.